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Title: The Question
Author: Edgar Lee Masters [
More Titles by Masters]
I
The sea moans and the stars are bright,
The leaves lisp 'neath a rolling moon.
I shut my eyes against the night
And make believe the time is June--
The June that left us over-soon.
This is the path and this the place
We sat and watched the moving sea,
And I the moonlight on your face.
We were not happy--woe is me,
Happiness is but memory!
It seemeth, now that you are gone,
My heart a measured pain doth keep:--
Are you now, as I am, alone?
Do you make merry, do you weep?
In whose arms are you now asleep?
THE ANSWER
II
I made my bed beneath the pines
Where the sea washed the sandy bars;
I heard the music of the winds,
And blest the aureate face of Mars.
All night a lilac splendor throve
Above the heaven's shadowy verge;
And in my heart the voice of love
Kept music with the dreaming surge.
A little maid was at my side--
She slept--I scarcely slept at all;
Until toward the morning-tide
A dream possessed me with its thrall.
She sweetly breathed; around my breast
I felt her warmth like drowsy bliss,
Then came the vision of unrest--
I saw your face and felt your kiss.
I woke and knew with what dismay
She read my secret and surprise;
She only said, "Again 'tis day!
How red your cheeks, how bright your eyes!"
[The end]
Edgar Lee Masters's poem: Question
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